Stimulus Checks Crash Bank Apps

(CBS DETROIT) - Bank tellers are essential workers during the pandemic and they were slammed Wednesday after 80 million stimulus checks were deposited in accounts.

"The biggest part of that is that (Wednesday) was the first wave of the economic stimulus checks to people in America," said Diversified Members Credit Union Marketing VP Colleen Scott.

The sudden windfall of cash overwhelmed financial institutions with an unexpected surge in customer service.

With millions of people checking their accounts to see if there was a deposit, banks and credit unions across the country experienced a high volume of traffic causing their online and phone systems to crash.

"People weren't really withdrawing the funds because many people will need them to live on for the next couple of months. I think it was more they just wanted to find a way to get to the credit union or bank to check to see if the money had been deposited. Because you know the wait times were so long on the phones, and you couldn't get into online banking for the most part so what's the third best way? Well to get in your car and go through that drive-thru line to see if the money had been deposited," said Scott.

Chase Bank representatives is telling CW50 although their systems did not fail, they did see an abnormal increase in activity at branches and on their app.

Right now, the financial giant is working with customers who are experiencing hardships with payment arrangements and increasing lines of credit for consumers and small businesses.

Bank of America is also stepping in to help customers with negative balances receive stimulus checks by adding temporary credits to accounts.

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